“Alicia and I heard something in the side yard. She went to check it out.” Jamia’s voice was shaky as she walked towards Monica.
“Something triggered our alarm system.” Monica said walking out onto the porch followed closely by Kara and Kelly. The police should be here any minute.” She turned to her daughters. “I told both of you to stay in the house.”
Kara ignored her and was already walking across the wrap around porch towards the side yard where Alicia had gone.
Monica told Kelly to stay with Jamia and ran to catch up with Kara. From the porch, they spotted Alicia walking back towards the front yard.
“Shit, I almost had him.” Alicia said brushing off her jacket. “Little fucker got away from me.”
“What?” Monica turned and moved back towards the front steps. “Who?”
Alicia met her at the bottom of the steps where Jamia and Kelly stood. “Don’t know. It was dark. But there was two of them.”
“What happened?” Jamia asked.
“I went around the side of the house and there were two figures standing in the yard looking up at one of the windows. I think one of them threw something.”
“That was what set off the motion detector.”
“Yeah, the flood lights came on and they spotted me. I ran to try to grab the one closest to me but he shoved me.” Alicia said angrily.
“What the hell were you thinking?” It was clear Jamia was upset. “You could have gotten hurt.”
Alicia saw how upset she was and walked over to hug her. “Hey, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
“Did you get a good look at them?” Kara asked.
Alicia shook her head, “No, they both had on dark hoodies. I couldn’t see their faces.”
They stopped talking as the police car pulled up to the curb. Forty-five minutes later the police left after taking their statements. Now they all sat in the family room talking.
“Alicia, I still can’t believe you tried to tackle one of them.” Monica shook her head in disbelief.
Alicia laughed, “It just seemed like the thing to do. Man, that police officer didn’t think it was, did he?”
“Uh, no.” Kara said. “Pretty sure Mikey won’t think so either.”
“Crap, maybe we shouldn’t mention that part of the night to anyone.” Alicia said. She was sure her husband would be upset.
“Probably a good idea.” Jamia agreed.
Monica nodded, “I won’t mention that part to Gee.”
“Why tell him anything?” Kelly spoke up. She had been sitting in a chair quietly listening to the conversation. When everyone in the room looked in her direction she shrugged, “I mean why worry him? Nothing bad happened.”
Kara shot Kelly a look that didn’t go unnoticed by Monica. She decided to discuss this with the girls later.
“I have to tell him. He’d be more upset if I didn’t and he found out later.” Monica said knowing it was the truth. She and Gerard had promised no secrets between them.
“Okay so we all agree to tell the guys that the motion detectors got set off and that I just happened to see two figures running from the side of the house. We’ll leave off the part where I tried to tackle one of them.” Alicia said looking at everyone in the room to make sure they were in agreement.
“Agreed.” Jamia said. She rubbed her bulging stomach and yawned. “Well this has been an exciting evening but I’m ready to fall asleep.”
Alicia stood and walked over to pull her from the sofa. “Come on little mama. Let's get you and the kids home.”
Kara and Monica walked them to the door. Unexpectedly Monica threw her arms around Alicia and gave her a tight hug. “I’m just glad nothing bad happened.” Monica explained.
Alicia laughed, “Mikey always says I’m fearless.” She thought a moment the relented, “It was stupid of me to try to tackle the guy.”
“You two be careful driving home.” Monica said as they walked out on to the front porch.
She and Kara stood side by side watching as they drove away.
“So was it Mike?” Monica asked Kara quietly.
Her daughter sighed, “Probably.”
Returning to the living room they noticed that Kelly had disappeared. “I’ll check on her.” Kara said walking towards the stairs.
Monica nodded, “I’m gonna make sure all the doors are locked. I’ll be up in a bit.”
Kara turned around to face her mom. “Don’t worry about it, okay?”
“About it?”
“About anything.” Kara said starting up the stairs.

The concert was over and Gerard wanted nothing more than to get back to the hotel so he could call Monica. As he made his way off stage Ray stopped him.
“Dude, that was a fucking awesome show.” He handed his guitar to the tech.
Gerard agreed, “Yeah, it was. You and Christa heading back to the hotel now?”
“Think we’re gonna hang here for a bit. Talk to some people.” He looked closely at Gerard, “You okay?”
Gerard nodded, “Just tired.”
“Things okay with Kelly?” Ray asked as they walked over to Christa who was standing on the side stage. As they neared Christa looked surprised and ended her call.
“I think so but Monica doesn’t think we’re getting the whole story about what happened.”
“Who was that?” Ray asked noticing she had a strange look on her face.
“Alicia” Christa answered pocketing her phone.
“What’s wrong?” Ray asked. “Is it Jamia?”
Christa shook her head, “No, she’s fine.”
“Then what?” Ray asked. Gerard was now looking concerned too.
“Uh, she and Jamia went to visit Monica tonight.” She didn’t want to say anything else. Not until Monica told Gerard what had happened.
“Christa, what’s wrong?” Gerard suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Nothing terrible, Gee. Just give Monica a call as soon as you can.”
The strain of the day finally hit Gerard, “What the fuck is going on?”
Ray put his arm around Christa. “Gee, don’t yell at her.”
Gerard took a deep breath and tried to calm down, “Sorry, I’m not really yelling at you. I’m just tired and worried. Is Kell alright?”
Christa nodded, “Yeah, she’s fine. It’s just I guess two intruders were scared off by your alarm system.”
“Fuck” Gerard said. He pulled out his phone to call Monica. It rang but went directly to voice mail. Next he tried the house phone but it was busy. “Shit” he said as he stormed off towards the backstage exit.

Gerard tried the home phone once again as he walked into his hotel room. This time it finally rang. When Monica answered his control snapped, “Who the hell has been on the phone?”
Monica was shocked by his tone, “Me. I was talking to your mother.”
“Why didn’t you answer your cell?”
Monica cringed, “Battery's dead. I need to charge it.”
“What the hell happened tonight?” He demanded.
Monica was shocked that he already knew, “How do you know something happened?”
He crossed over to the bed and sat down. Taking a deep breath he explained. “Christa was talking to Alicia after the concert.”
“Well, shit. News travels fast.”
“Okay I’m not amused. What happened?” He took out his cigarettes and lit one.
“Gee, calm down.”
“Stop telling me to calm down. I’m not a fucking five year old.”
Monica heard the concern in his tone. She knew his anger was out of fear. “Honey, we’re okay. There were two intruders in the side yard but the motion detectors worked and set off our alarm. The police were here in a matter of minutes.”
“Were they trying to break in?’
Monica pulled her feet under her and Frank crawled up in her lap. “I don’t think so. I’m not positive but I think one of them may have been Mike. He tried to call Kelly earlier and knows she can’t talk on the phone. The window that they threw a rock at is Kelly’s. I think he wanted her to come out an talk to him but he didn’t realize we have an alarm system.”
“What’s Kell think? Does she think it was Mike?”
“She didn’t say but Kara thinks so.”
Some of the concern he was feeling dissipated. “If it was him why is he so hot to talk to Kell?”
“My guess would be so they can get their stories straight.”
“Wish I was there to talk to Mike” Gerard said in a menacing tone.
“Gee, try to stop worrying. We’re all fine here.”
He laughed mirthlessly, “Kinda hard, Hon.”
“I know but you gotta try. So how was the concert?” She asked changing the subject. Gerard did a recap of the best parts of the show. They talked for almost an hour before saying goodnight. As they were getting ready to disconnect Gerard had an idea.
“I was thinking. Why don’t you and Kara fly out to Denver for our last show before the break? You two could fly out Saturday morning; see the show that night and we could all fly back together on Sunday. I’m sure Mom would love to have Kell stay with her or she could fly out too. Maybe that would help to cheer her up.”
Monica smiled at his concern for Kelly. “That’s sounds wonderful. I’ll talk to the girls in the morning.”
“I wish tomorrow was our last show.” He said softly.
“Me too.” Monica agreed. “Me too.”